1. My $500M Mars rover mistake
Total comment counts : 72
Summary
In February 2003, a mistake occurred at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory during testing of the Spirit Mars Rover. The author was tasked with verifying the integrity of the motors in the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) attached to the rover’s robotic arm. While performing the test, a surge of electricity was sent into the spacecraft instead of the motor, causing alarm. The author realized they had made a mistake with the break-out-box used in the test. The article highlights the importance of thorough testing and the potential consequences of errors in spacecraft assembly.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article is about a software engineer who recounts a mistake he made earlier in his career while doing consulting work for a client. On the day of the launch, he accidentally updated a script with production credentials before running a test, causing errors and making the client’s service unresponsive. Fortunately, the client had recently backed up their database, so most of the data was recovered. The incident taught the engineer to be extremely cautious when working with database and production systems.
Top 2 Comment Summary
This article highlights the importance of having a good process in place, rather than placing blame on individuals for mistakes. The author empathizes with someone who made a mistake, expressing how devastating it must have been for them to cause such a failure. The author also describes the significant responsibility that comes with working on a project that many people depend on. Ultimately, the author views those involved in the incident as heroes.
2. Writing documentation for your house
Total comment counts : 70
Summary
The article discusses the idea of creating technical documentation for a house, similar to how software documentation is created. The author, a first-time homeowner and engineer, explains how they have started creating documentation for their own house using a technical documentation framework called Diátaxis. The framework suggests organizing the documentation into four modes: tutorials, how-to guides, technical reference, and explanations. The author also adds a changelog page to log major changes to the house. They use Material for Mkdocs, a website-building tool, to implement the documentation site. The author finds that having this documentation has been helpful for finding information quickly and adding value to their home. They also express the intention to pass on the documentation to future owners. The article concludes by mentioning other ideas and discussions on the topic.
Top 1 Comment Summary
A friend of the author was livestreaming her home renovation project when she discovered a clipboard hidden in the wall. The clipboard contained wiring and installation notes from the 70s, as well as a front page note encouraging perseverance in the difficult and lonely work of rehabbing. The discovery brought the friend to tears and provided a poignant moment during the isolating time of the pandemic.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article shares a story about someone who bought a house that was previously owned by a couple who had divorced and moved out. Despite not having much interaction with the previous owners, the new owner discovered a binder in the house containing valuable documentation, including building plans, updated plans for modifications, cable and connection details, equipment manuals, invoices, warranty certificates, a hand-drawn garden map, and plant care instructions. The new owner expresses gratitude for the thoughtful preparation by the previous owners, as having detailed and accurate documentation has been very helpful for various tasks around the house.
3. The 1988 shooting down of Flight 655 as a user interface disaster
Total comment counts : 42
Summary
error
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article discusses how a company was founded as a result of a redesign of the HMI/UI system used by the US Navy. After a certain incident, the Navy sought assistance from professors specializing in high-impact decision making and cognitive load. The Navy was impressed with their analysis and recommendations, leading to a collaboration on various projects. Eventually, a company focusing on human factors engineering and complex system interface design was established, with the founders retiring and a former Navy Captain becoming the new CEO.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses two incidents involving airplane crashes. The first incident involves the shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655 and is detailed in the Admiral Cloudberg blog. The second incident involves the crash of Air France Flight 447, which was caused in part by a User Experience (UX) mistake. The crash occurred because the inputs from two control sticks were averaged, causing conflicting inputs to be minimized. The pilots’ contradictory actions had little effect on the plane’s recovery, and by the time the problem was identified, it was too late to prevent the crash. The captain had re-entered the cabin just before the crash and realized the problem, but it was too late to take corrective action.
4. Rust std fs slower than Python? No, it’s hardware
Total comment counts : 29
Summary
The article discusses an investigation into the slower performance of OpenDAL’s Python binding compared to Python itself. The author refactors the code and discovers that the Python binding for OpenDAL is slower than Python, even when OpenDAL is implemented in Rust. The author analyzes the syscalls using strace and realizes that Python’s use of mmap for memory allocation is a contributing factor to its faster performance. The author then tests the code with jemalloc, a proficient memory allocator, and notes that it improves the performance significantly. The article concludes by mentioning that the slower performance of Rust compared to Python was only observed on the author’s machine and could be due to CPU vulnerabilities or system settings.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a comparison between different Python wrappers around native code in terms of performance. The author finds it odd to describe one wrapper as “slower than Python” since the Python standard library is not exclusively written in pure Python. They expected the functions in the library to be native code and optimized individually. The conclusion of the article also took some effort to understand, as the phrasing of “C is slower than Python with specified offset” gave the impression that C code was slower than Python even with the same offset. However, it is actually the opposite, as specifying the offset in the C code made it faster than Python. Despite the confusing start and conclusion, the article remains interesting.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the existence of two CPU feature flags that indicate the performance and usability of REP STOS/MOV instructions for memory operations like memset/memcpy. The author highlights the ongoing inconvenience of having to create optimized routines for each new CPU generation. They question why this testing isn’t part of the CPU vendors’ timing testsuite.
5. Freetar – an alternative front end for ultimate-guitar.com
Total comment counts : 45
Summary
The article discusses the availability of a new alternative frontend called “freetar” for ultimate-guitar.com. It provides links to access the frontend through GitHub and PyPi package.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article expresses frustration with the current state of tablature tools and their restrictions on users. The author mentions building their own tools to save tabs due to the belief that these restrictions will only increase. The lack of open-source software in this domain is cited as a drawback since tabs are often licensed or owned by publishing companies. The author also mentions an artist, Oliver Tree, whose tabs were taken down despite their simplicity. Overall, the author is dissatisfied with the current situation, feeling that anyone should be able to listen to a song and create a tab.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article reminisces about OLGA, the On-Line Guitar Archive, which provided free user-generated text-based tabs for learning how to play guitar in the 1990s. The author remembers using OLGA to learn every song they wanted to play.
6. GitMounter: A FUSE filesystem for Git repositories
Total comment counts : 14
Summary
The article discusses a request for a read-only FUSE filesystem for a Git repository where each commit would be represented as a folder containing all the files of that commit. The author reveals that they had previously created something similar but never shared it due to a complicated build process and perceived lack of usefulness. However, upon request, they have cleaned it up and turned it into a SwiftPM package, which should work on macOS and Linux with the necessary dependencies installed. The author also recommends following Julia Evans, who creates accessible blog posts exploring various software topics.
Top 1 Comment Summary
Seafile is a file sync storage system that stores files using a structure inspired by Git. Instead of directly storing files, Seafile divides them into blocks using a Content Defined Chunking algorithm. This allows for deduplication of data between different versions of frequently updated files, improving storage efficiency and enabling parallel data transfers between servers. It is generally compatible with older PCs, but it’s recommended to have a backup in case of data corruption in the Seafile repositories. For more information, you can refer to the Seafile manual and a research paper on the topic.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the development of a Rust implementation of NFS (Network File System) that allows users to mount a Git repository and its branch state to a folder. This implementation also enables users to analyze parquet files using DuckDb. The article provides specific code examples to demonstrate the usage of these features.
7. Roundcube open-source webmail software merges with Nextcloud
Total comment counts : 28
Summary
The article promotes Phoronix Premium, a subscription service that offers ad-free access to the Phoronix website, native dark mode, and the ability to view multi-page articles on a single page. The service also supports the continued operations of the website, which focuses on Linux hardware reviews and open-source news content. The author, Michael Larabel, founded Phoronix in 2004 and has written over 20,000 articles covering topics such as Linux hardware support and performance. Readers can support Phoronix by subscribing to Phoronix Premium, contributing through PayPal or Stripe, or following the author on social media.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article is written by someone who has been using Nextcloud for family collaboration and expresses overall satisfaction with it. However, they criticize the user experience (UX) changes, stating that the newer updates focus too much on whitespace and making widgets round. They specifically mention frustration with the calendar interface. On a positive note, they mention that upgrading Nextcloud when using the docker image is simple. The author also mentions using Roundcube as their main email client but is disappointed by a recent UI update that limits customization options. They express a desire for a fork of Roundcube with the previous theme.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article is about Roundcube, a webmail software, remaining as an independent product. It mentions that Roundcube is highly stable and robust compared to Nextcloud. The author expresses satisfaction with the decision to replace the current Nextcloud client, as they find it to be of poor quality.
8. BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
Total comment counts : 18
Summary
The article discusses the features and compatibility of BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0, a programming language and development environment. It runs on various platforms including Windows, Linux, MacOS, Raspberry Pi, Android, iOS, and web browsers. The desktop editions include a program editor with syntax coloring, diagnostic aids for debugging, and other features. The Android and iOS editions have a simplified interface for touchscreen devices. The program can be compiled into standalone applications that can be distributed freely. BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0 is largely compatible with BBC BASIC for Windows, retaining compatibility with the BBC Microcomputer. It also includes an assembler for low-level programming and allows access to API functions. Some adaptation may be needed for compatibility with BBCSDL. The language is free to download and use.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author highlights several “killer features” of BBC Basic, including its instant-on capability, integrated assembler, extensive documentation, and direct access to hardware. They specifically mention the convenience of quickly entering a REPL/shell and easily using inline assembly language. Additionally, they note the availability of books and television shows from the BBC for learning. While the author feels nostalgic about the language, they admit that without the associated hardware platform, they may not feel inclined to use it again.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author shares their experience of using BBC Basic on an iPad, reminiscing about their first computer, a PDP-8, and their love for the Apple II and its built-in basic programming language. They also mention their open source adventure game and a chess program they wrote for Apple. The mention of BBC Basic evokes feelings of nostalgia for the author.
9. To move fast, quantum maze solvers must forget the past
Total comment counts : 8
Summary
Researchers have long wondered if it is possible to find the exit of a maze quickly without forgetting the way, in a world governed by the strange laws of quantum physics. A recent study by Matthew Coudron and his colleagues showed that no algorithm in a broad class of fast quantum algorithms can find a path through a special maze called a welded tree graph without temporarily losing track of the entrance. This finding suggests that forgetting is inevitable in quantum algorithms. Quantum computers owe their power to superposition, which allows them to explore many options simultaneously. However, not all computational tasks can benefit from a quantum speedup. In the past, quantum algorithms have been successful in factoring large numbers and solving search problems. While the speedup achieved by Grover’s algorithm was modest, it demonstrated the value of quantum superposition.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the concept of forgetting the past and compares it to solving a maze by pouring water into it. The author finds it amusing how leaving the task of figuring out the outcome and fixing any resulting issues to future science is akin to this process.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author mentions their observation that academic papers often “bury the lede” or the main point of the research beyond the abstract. They express their opinion that it would be more effective to highlight the main point explicitly and then provide a recap linking it back to the original idea. They believe that both computer science and math papers could benefit from a more structured outline throughout the paper.
10. Show HN: Hacky Meta Glasses GPT4 Vision Integration
Total comment counts : 19
Summary
The article describes a hacky way to integrate GPT4 Vision into Meta Rayban Smart Glasses using voice commands. The process involves setting up the necessary requirements, such as the glasses, an OpenAI API key, and a Facebook/Messenger account. It also provides instructions on how to run the integration and gives a demonstration example. The article concludes with a note about reaching out for issues or feature requests and the hope for an SDK from the Meta Reality Labs team in the future.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author describes a demo they found fantastic. They have tried to build similar prototypes in the past using Meta Headsets, but the limited API and SDK blocked them from doing anything meaningful with computer vision. They hope that Apple Vision Pro provides a more robust API for developers and forces Meta to be more open. They plan to use this approach for a project they have in mind and thank the demo creator for open sourcing it.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article is positive about a demo, despite its short duration and low video quality. The writer praises the demo for showcasing the potential for unlocking more possibilities.